Stand Your Ground

Tamara F. Lawson

Tamara Lawson

Dickinson will host an engaging conversation about how discretion can affect the outcomes of criminal cases, including claims of self-defense and the right to stand-your-ground. The event, titled “Stand Your Ground: Discretion, Race and Culture,” will be held on Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in Allison Hall, 99 Mooreland Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

Tamara Lawson, a law professor at Saint Thomas University School of Law, will discuss the dynamics of the discretionary decisions made by legislatures, prosecutors, judges and juries in controversial, high-profile criminal cases such as the Florida case involving Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.p

Lawson teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence, and a seminar on race and the law. She has authored multiple law-review articles on criminal law, forensic evidence, police brutality and prosecutorial discretion. Her most recent article is "A Fresh Cut in an Old Wound – A Critical Analysis of the Trayvon Martin Killing: The Public Outcry, the Prosecutors’ Discretion and The Stand Your Ground Law."

Lawson has completed extensive research on Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and made many media appearances in connection with her research on the Trayvon Martin case. She was selected as the reporter for the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Stand Your Ground Laws. Previously, Lawson served as a deputy district attorney for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas from 1996–2002.